Today's consumer is not limited to a particular retailer's or department store's inventory, selection and styles. Traditionally, a consumer shopped for items from different stores with the anticipation and hope that the items would coordinate. Alternatively, a consumer would have to wait for an opportunity to try on different items that were purchased at different places and return those items that did not coordinate. Recent technological advances have attempted to enhance the consumer's shopping ability through the use of e-commerce, sometimes referred to as “online buying” or “online shopping.”
There are inherent differences between “online buying” and “online shopping” in that current e-commerce transactions are based on an individual buying goods or services online that they have either decided to buy prior to logging on to the internet or find as a result of bargain hunting on the internet. There is very little, if any, true shopping on the internet. Most people define shopping as an “experience,” “fun,” “exciting,” and the like. True shopping is going to a mall or department store with the intention of buying yet-to-be-determined goods or services. Few consumers are getting on the internet with the same mindset that they have before they physically go shopping. It is the difference between logging onto the internet to buy an additional pair of jeans and going shopping and coming home with two pairs of jeans, a belt, two sweaters and two shirts. Amazon, for instance, tries to recreate the “shopping experience” by offering reviews by other customers and suggestions for other books which may interest the shopper based on the book the consumer is currently purchasing.
The nature of the Internet creates some potential advantages over traditional shopping. The expansive reach of the Internet allows a consumer to shop at stores that are not physically available in the consumer's geographic area or to order merchandise that is not available in the consumer's area. The Internet's perceived anonymity also allows a consumer to shop at a retailer that the consumer finds intimidating or embarrassing.
Problems can arise when a person is “online shopping” with the intent to “online buy” for someone else. This situation is common for birthdays and also in connection with holidays when use of such gifting on the internet peaks. Using apparel as an example, when the online-shopper (“the giver”) purchases a shirt for another (“the recipient”), if the shirt is the wrong color, size or style, the recipient typically thanks the giver without addressing the inappropriateness of the gift or asks the giver to exchange the gift for something that the recipient specifies. This practice discourages use of this type of gifting because the giver is burdened with addressing and undoing the transaction thereby transforming an otherwise simple transaction into a relatively complex transaction involving multiple internet communications.